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Substantial progress has been made in understanding the neurocognitive underpinnings of learning math. Building on this work, it has been hypothesized that declarative and procedural memory, two domain-general learning and memory systems, play important roles in acquiring math skills. In a longitudinal study, we tested whether in fact declarative and procedural memory predict children's math skills during elementary school years. A sample of 109 children was tested across grades 2, 3 and 4. Linear mixed-effects regression and structural equation modeling revealed the following. First, learning in declarative but not procedural memory was associated with math skills within each grade. Second, declarative but not procedural memory in each grade was related to math skills in all later grades (e.g., declarative memory in grade 2 was related to math skills in grade 4). Sensitivity analyses showed that the pattern of results was robust, except for the longitudinal prediction of later math skills when accounting for stable inter-individual differences via the inclusion of random intercepts. Our findings highlight the foundational role of early domain-general learning and memory in children's acquisition of math.

Correlation does not imply causation, but this does not necessarily stop people from drawing causal inferences from correlational statements. We show that people do in fact infer causality from statements of association, under minimal conditions. In Study 1, participants interpreted statements of the form "X is associated with Y" to imply that Y causes X. In Studies 2 and 3, participants interpreted statements of the form "X is associated with an increased risk of Y" to imply that X causes Y. Thus, even the most orthodox correlational language can give rise to causal inferences.

Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.) have been bred to exude higher amounts or different types of the specialized plant metabolites, acylsugars, from type IV trichomes. Acylsugars are known to deter several herbivorous insect pests, including the western flower thrips (WFT), Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande); however, all previous studies investigated the effect of acylsugars on leaves, or acylsugar extracts obtained from leaves. In spite of the WFT predilection for flowers, there is a gap in knowledge about flower defenses against thrips damage. This is especially important in light of their capacity to acquire and inoculate viruses in the genus Orthotospovirus, such as Tomato spotted wilt orthotospovirus (TSWV), in flowers. Therefore, we turned our attention to assessing thrips oviposition differences on flowers of 14 entries, including 8 interspecific hybrids, 5 tomato lines bred for specific acylsugar-related characteristics (type IV trichome densities, acylsugar amount, sugar moiety and fatty acid profile), and a fresh market tomato hybrid, Mt. Spring, which only produces trace amounts of acylsugars. Our results show that the density of the acylsugar droplet bearing type IV trichomes is greatest on sepals, relative to other flower structures, and accordingly, WFT avoids oviposition on sepals in favor of trichome-sparse petals. In concordance with past studies, acylsugar amount was the most important acylsugar-related characteristic suppressing WFT oviposition. Certain acylsugar fatty acids, specifically i-C5, i-C9 and i-C11, were also significantly associated with changes in WFT oviposition. These results support continued breeding efforts to increase acylsugar amounts and explore modifications of fatty acid profile and their roles in deterring thrips oviposition. The finding that acylsugar production occurs and reduces thrips oviposition in tomato flowers will be important in efforts to use acylsugar-mediated resistance to reduce incidence of orthotospoviruses such as TSWV in tomato by deterring virus transmission and development of thrips vector populations in the crop.

Substantial progress has been made in understanding the neurocognitive underpinnings of learning math. Building on this work, it has been hypothesized that declarative and procedural memory, two domain-general learning and memory systems, play important roles in acquiring math skills. In a longitudinal study, we tested whether in fact declarative and procedural memory predict children's math skills during elementary school years. A sample of 109 children was tested across grades 2, 3 and 4. Linear mixed-effects regression and structural equation modeling revealed the following. First, learning in declarative but not procedural memory was associated with math skills within each grade. Second, declarative but not procedural memory in each grade was related to math skills in all later grades (e.g., declarative memory in grade 2 was related to math skills in grade 4). Sensitivity analyses showed that the pattern of results was robust, except for the longitudinal prediction of later math skills when accounting for stable inter-individual differences via the inclusion of random intercepts. Our findings highlight the foundational role of early domain-general learning and memory in children's acquisition of math. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In COVID-19 patients, lung ultrasound is superior to chest radiograph and has good agreement with computerized tomography to diagnose lung pathologies. Most lung ultrasound protocols published to date are complex and time-consuming. We describe a new illustrative Point-of-care ultrasound Lung Injury Score (PLIS) to help guide the care of patients with COVID-19 and assess if the PLIS would be able to predict COVID-19 patients’ clinical course. Methods This retrospective study describing the novel PLIS was conducted in a large tertiary-level hospital. COVID-19 patients were included if they required any form of respiratory support and had at least one PLIS study during hospitalization. Data collected included PLIS on admission, demographics, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores, and patient outcomes. The primary outcome was the need for intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Results A total of 109 patients and 293 PLIS studies were included in our analysis. The mean age was 60.9, and overall mortality was 18.3%. Median PLIS score was 5.0 (3.0–6.0) vs. 2.0 (1.0–3.0) in ICU and non-ICU patients respectively (pConclusions The PLIS for COVID-19 patients is simple and associated with SOFA score, ICU admission, and in-hospital mortality. Further studies are needed to demonstrate whether the PLIS can improve outcomes and become an integral part of the management of COVID-19 patients.

Saliva is known to play a crucial role in insect feeding behavior and virus transmission. Currently, little is known about the salivary glands and saliva of thrips, despite the fact that Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (the western flower thrips) is a serious pest due to its destructive feeding, wide host range, and transmission of tospoviruses. As a first step towards characterizing thrips salivary gland functions, we sequenced the transcriptome of the primary salivary glands of F. occidentalis using short read sequencing (Illumina) technology. A de novo-assembled transcriptome revealed 31,392 high quality contigs with an average size of 605 bp. A total of 12,166 contigs had significant BLASTx or tBLASTx hits (E≤1.0E-6) to known proteins, whereas a high percentage (61.24%) of contigs had no apparent protein or nucleotide hits. Comparison of the F. occidentalis salivary gland transcriptome (sialotranscriptome) against a published F. occidentalis full body transcriptome assembled from Roche-454 reads revealed several contigs with putative annotations associated with salivary gland functions. KEGG pathway analysis of the sialotranscriptome revealed that the majority (18 out of the top 20 predicted KEGG pathways) of the salivary gland contig sequences match proteins involved in metabolism. We identified several genes likely to be involved in detoxification and inhibition of plant defense responses including aldehyde dehydrogenase, metalloprotease, glucose oxidase, glucose dehydrogenase, and regucalcin. We also identified several genes that may play a role in the extra-oral digestion of plant structural tissues including β-glucosidase and pectin lyase; and the extra-oral digestion of sugars, including α-amylase, maltase, sucrase, and α-glucosidase. This is the first analysis of a sialotranscriptome for any Thysanopteran species and it provides a foundational tool to further our understanding of how thrips interact with their plant hosts and the viruses they transmit.

Diarrhea in mink kits is a major cause of disease and mortality in the mink production. The etiology remains unknown in most outbreaks due to a lack of diagnostic assays. In the current study we present an RT-qPCR method to detect mink astrovirus in fecal samples from mink kits with diarrhea. All sampled animals were classified based on age and patoanatomical evaluation as having pre-weaning diarrhea, diarrhea in the growth period or as having no macroscopic signs of diarrhea. Fecal samples were analyzed for MiAstV with RT-qPCR, next generation sequencing and electron microscopy in parallel. Mink astrovirus was detected with RT-qPCR in 92 out of 203 samples. This detection was confirmed by next generation sequencing in a high proportion of samples (22/27), and by visualization of astrovirus particles with EM in some of the samples. Mink astrovirus was highly prevalent (68%) among kits in the outbreaks of pre-weaning diarrhea, in particular outbreaks from May, while less prevalent in outbreaks in June. Mink astrovirus was detected in outbreaks of diarrhea in the growth period, though in a much lesser extent than in the pre-weaning period. The role of mink astrovirus in the diarrhea disease complex of mink remain to be investigated, and for that purpose this sensitive and robust RT-qPCR can be a valuable tool in the future.

This study investigates the storage vs. composition of inflected forms in typically-developing children. Children aged 8-12 were tested on the production of regular and irregular past-tense forms. Storage (vs. composition) was examined by probing for past-tense frequency effects and imageability effects--both of which are diagnostic tests for storage--while controlling for a number of confounding factors. We also examined sex as a factor. Irregular inflected forms, which must depend on stored representations, always showed evidence of storage (frequency and/or imageability effects), not only across all children, but also separately in both sexes. In contrast, for regular forms, which could be either stored or composed, only girls showed evidence of storage. This pattern is similar to that found in previously-acquired adult data from the same task, with the notable exception that development affects which factors influence the storage of regulars in females: imageability plays a larger role in girls, and frequency in women. Overall, the results suggest that irregular inflected forms are always stored (in children and adults, and in both sexes), whereas regulars can be either composed or stored, with their storage a function of various item- and subject-level factors.

Maternal caregiving capacity, which is affected in part by cognition and mood, is crucial for the health of mothers and infants. Few interventions aim to improve maternal and infant health through improving such capacity. Multiple micronutrient (MMN) supplementation may improve maternal cognition and mood, since micronutrients are essential for brain function. We assessed mothers who participated in the Supplementation with Multiple Micronutrients Intervention Trial (SUMMIT), a double-blind cluster-randomized trial in Indonesia comparing MMN supplementation to iron and folic acid (IFA) during pregnancy and until three months postpartum. We adapted a set of well-studied tests of cognition, motor dexterity, and mood to the local context and administered them to a random sample of 640 SUMMIT participants after an average of 25 weeks (SD = 9) of supplementation. Analysis was by intention to treat. Controlling for maternal age, education, and socio-economic status, MMN resulted in a benefit of 0.12 SD on overall cognition, compared to IFA (95%CI 0.03-0.22, p = .010), and a benefit of 0.18 SD on reading efficiency (95%CI 0.02-0.35, p = .031). Both effects were found particularly in anemic (hemoglobin

Over the last two decades, much of the recent efforts dedicated to the Levantine Middle Paleolithic has concentrated on the role of open-air sites in the settlement system in the region. Here focus on the site of 'Ein Qashish as a cases study. Located in present-day northern Israel, the area of this site is estimated to have been >1300 m2, of which ca. 670 were excavated. The site is located at the confluence of the Qishon stream with a small tributary running off the eastern flanks of the Mt. Carmel. At the area of this confluence, water channels and alluvial deposits created a dynamic depositional environment. Four Archaeological Units were identified in a 4.5-m thick stratigraphic sequence were dated by Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) to between-71 and 54 ka, and probably shorter time span-~70-~60 ka. Here we present the diverse material culture remains from the site (lithics, including refitted sequences; modified limestone pieces; molluscs; faunal remains) against their changing paleogeographic backdrop. Skeletal evidence suggests that these remains were associated with Neanderthals. The large-scale repeated accumulation of late Middle Paleolithic remains in the same place on the landscape provides a unique opportunity to address questions of occupation duration and intensity in open-air sites. We find that each occupation was of ephemeral nature, yet presents a range of activities, suggesting that the locale has been used as a generalized residential site rather than specialized task-specific ones. This role of 'Ein Qashish did not change through time, suggesting that during the late Middle Paleolithic settlement system in this part of the southern Levant were stable.

People spend much of their time in imaginary worlds, and have beliefs about the events that are likely in those worlds, and the laws that govern them. Such beliefs are likely affected by people's intuitive theories of the real world. In three studies, people judged the effort required to cast spells that cause physical violations. People ranked the actions of spells congruently with intuitive physics. For example, people judge that it requires more effort to conjure up a frog than to levitate it one foot off the ground. A second study manipulated the target and extent of the spells, and demonstrated with a continuous measure that people are sensitive to this manipulation even between participants. A pre-registered third study replicated the results of Study 2. These results suggest that people's intuitive theories partly account for how they think about imaginary worlds.

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype is believed to play a role in the onset of dementia, though less is known about its relationship with non-pathogenic age-related cognitive decline. We assessed whether APOE was a risk factor for cognitive decline among older Taiwanese adults using nationally representative data. General cognition was measured longitudinally over eleven years; domain-specific cognitive assessments of working memory, declarative learning and three aspects of attention (executive function, alerting, and orientation) were performed once. Having at least one risky APOE allele was associated with more rapid longitudinal cognitive decline compared to those with no risky alleles. Some evidence from the cross-sectional analysis of domain-specific cognitive assessments suggested that APOE genotype may be more closely associated with working memory and declarative learning than with attention. Most genetic studies of cognition include only populations of European descent; extension is crucial. This study confirmed the association between APOE genotype and the rate of cognitive decline in a predominantly Han Chinese population. Additional studies on diverse populations are warranted.

Pre-weaning diarrhea (PWD) in mink kits is a common multifactorial syndrome on commercial mink farms. Several potential pathogens such as astroviruses, caliciviruses, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus delphini have been studied, but the etiology of the syndrome seems complex. In pooled samples from 38 diarrheic and 42 non-diarrheic litters, each comprising of intestinal contents from 2-3 mink kits from the same litter, the bacterial populations were studied using Illumina Next Generation Sequencing technology and targeted 16S amplicon sequencing. In addition, we used deep sequencing to determine and compare the viral intestinal content in 31 healthy non-diarrheic and 30 diarrheic pooled samples (2-3 mink kits from the same litter per pool). The results showed high variations in composition of the bacterial species between the pools. Enterococci, staphylococci and streptococci dominated in both diarrheic and non-diarrheic pools. However, enterococci accounted for 70% of the reads in the diarrheic group compared to 50% in the non-diarrheic group and this increase was at the expense of staphylococci and streptococci which together accounted for 45% and 17% of the reads in the non-diarrheic and diarrheic group, respectively. Moreover, in the diarrheic pools there were more reads assigned to Clostridia, Escherichia-Shigella and Enterobacter compared to the non-diarrheic pools. The taxonomically categorized sequences from the virome showed that the most prevalent viruses in all pools were caliciviruses and mamastroviruses (almost exclusively type 10). However, the numbers of reads assigned to caliciviruses were almost 3 times higher in the diarrheic pools compared the non-diarrheic pools and Sapporo-like caliciviruses were more abundant than the Norwalk-like caliciviruses. The results from this study have contributed to the insight into the changes in the intestinal microbiota associated with the PWD syndrome of mink.

Despite a large body of research on response properties of neurons in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex, studies to date have not yet produced quantitative feature descriptions that can predict responses to arbitrary objects. This deficit in the research prevents a thorough understanding of object representation in the IT cortex. Here we propose a fragment-based approach for finding quantitative feature descriptions of face neurons in the IT cortex. The development of the proposed method was driven by the assumption that it is possible to recover features from a set of natural image fragments if the set is sufficiently large. To find the feature from the set, we compared object responses predicted from each fragment and responses of neurons to these objects, and search for the fragment that revealed the highest correlation with neural object responses. Prediction of object responses of each fragment was made by normalizing Euclidian distance between the fragment and each object to 0 to 1 such that the smaller distance gives the higher value. The distance was calculated at the space where images were transformed to a local orientation space by a Gabor filter and a local max operation. The method allowed us to find features with a correlation coefficient between predicted and neural responses of 0.68 on average (number of object stimuli, 104) from among 560,000 feature candidates, reliably explaining differential responses among faces as well as a general preference for faces over to non-face objects. Furthermore, predicted responses of the resulting features to novel object images were significantly correlated with neural responses to these images. Identification of features comprising specific, moderately complex combinations of local orientations and colors enabled us to predict responses to upright and inverted faces, which provided a possible mechanism of face inversion effects. (292/300).

Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.) have been bred to exude higher amounts or different types of the specialized plant metabolites, acylsugars, from type IV trichomes. Acylsugars are known to deter several herbivorous insect pests, including the western flower thrips (WFT), Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande); however, all previous studies investigated the effect of acylsugars on leaves, or acylsugar extracts obtained from leaves. In spite of the WFT predilection for flowers, there is a gap in knowledge about flower defenses against thrips damage. This is especially important in light of their capacity to acquire and inoculate viruses in the genus Orthotospovirus, such as Tomato spotted wilt orthotospovirus (TSWV), in flowers. Therefore, we turned our attention to assessing thrips oviposition differences on flowers of 14 entries, including 8 interspecific hybrids, 5 tomato lines bred for specific acylsugar-related characteristics (type IV trichome densities, acylsugar amount, sugar moiety and fatty acid profile), and a fresh market tomato hybrid, Mt. Spring, which only produces trace amounts of acylsugars. Our results show that the density of the acylsugar droplet bearing type IV trichomes is greatest on sepals, relative to other flower structures, and accordingly, WFT avoids oviposition on sepals in favor of trichome-sparse petals. In concordance with past studies, acylsugar amount was the most important acylsugar-related characteristic suppressing WFT oviposition. Certain acylsugar fatty acids, specifically i-C5, i-C9 and i-C11, were also significantly associated with changes in WFT oviposition. These results support continued breeding efforts to increase acylsugar amounts and explore modifications of fatty acid profile and their roles in deterring thrips oviposition. The finding that acylsugar production occurs and reduces thrips oviposition in tomato flowers will be important in efforts to use acylsugar-mediated resistance to reduce incidence of orthotospoviruses such as TSWV in tomato by deterring virus transmission and development of thrips vector populations in the crop.

Peripheral intravascular cannula/catheter (PIVC) insertion is a common invasive procedure, but PIVC failure before the end of therapy is unacceptably high. As PIVC failure disrupts treatment and reinsertion can be distressing for the patient, prevention of PIVC failure is an important patient outcome. Consumer participation in PIVC care to prevent failure is an untapped resource. This study aimed to understand consumers' PIVC experience; establish aspects of PIVC insertion and care relevant to them; and to compare experiences of adult consumers to adult carers of a child. An international, web-based, cross-sectional survey was distributed via social media inviting adult consumers and adult carers of a child under 18 years who had experienced having a PIVC in the last five years (one survey each for adults and adult carers) to complete a 10-item survey. As such, sampling bias is a limitation and results should be carefully considered in light of this. There were 712 respondents from 25 countries, mainly female (87.1%) and adults (80%). A little over 50% of adults described insertion as moderately painful or worse, with level of insertion difficulty (0-10 scale) identified as moderate (median 4, IQR 1, 7). Adult carers reported significantly more pain during insertion and insertion difficulty (both p < 0.001). Rates of first insertion attempt failure were higher in children compared with adults (89/139 [64%] vs 221/554 [40%]; p < 0.001), and 23% of children required ≥ 4 attempts, compared with 9% of adults (p < 0.0001). Three themes from open-ended question emerged: Significance of safe and consistent PIVC care; Importance of staff training and competence; and Value of communication. The PIVC experience can be painful, stressful and frustrating for consumers. Priorities for clinicians and policy makers should include use of pain relief as standard practice to reduce the pain associated with PIVC insertion and developing strategies to increase first PIVC insertion attempt success particularly for children and older consumers.

OBJECTIVE:Bed rest or activity restriction is a common obstetrical practice, despite a paucity of data to support its efficacy. The aim of this study was to determine whether physical activity, as assessed by a smart band activity tracker, is associated with preterm birth in pregnant women at high risk for preterm delivery. METHODS:This was a pilot prospective cohort study including pregnant women at high risk for preterm delivery between 24 and 32 weeks-of-gestation. Physical activity level was assessed by smart band activity. Patients with sonographic short cervical length (≤ 20 mm) were asked to wear the smart band activity tracker continuously for at least one week, including one weekend. Both physicians and patients were blinded to the data stored in the smart band activity tracker. No specific recommendations were given to participants as to the level or intensity of physical activity. The primary outcome was the rate of preterm birth (< 37 weeks-of-gestation). Secondary outcomes included the rate of delivery before 34 weeks of gestation and neonatal outcome. Parametric and nonparametric statistics were used for analysis. RESULTS:Study population included 49 pregnant women: 37 women (75.7%) delivered preterm and 12 (24.5%) delivered at or after 37 weeks-of-gestation. The median steps per day was significantly lower in patients who delivered preterm (3576, IQR: 2478-4775 vs. 4554, IQR: 3632-6337, p = 0.02). Regression analysis revealed that the median number of steps per day was independently inversely associated with preterm birth, after adjustment for maternal age, body mass index, gestational age at recruitment, cervical length, cervical dilatation and plurality. CONCLUSION:This pilot study represents the first quantitative assessment of the association between physical activity and preterm birth. The results of this pilot study do not support the efficacy of decreased physical activity in the prevention of preterm birth in patients with sonographic short cervical length.

We examined learning and retention in nonverbal and verbal declarative memory in Hungarian children with (n = 21) and without (n = 21) SLI. Recognition memory was tested both 10 minutes and one day after encoding. On nonverbal items, only the children with SLI improved overnight, with no resulting group differences in performance. In the verbal domain, the children with SLI consistently showed worse performance than the typically-developing children, but the two groups showed similar overnight changes. The findings suggest the possibility of spared or even enhanced declarative memory consolidation in SLI.

BACKGROUND:Randomized controlled trials evaluate the effectiveness of interventions for central venous access devices, however, high complication rates remain. Scoping reviews map the available evidence and demonstrate evidence deficiencies to focus ongoing research priorities. METHOD:A scoping review (January 2006-December 2015) of randomized controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to improve central venous access device outcomes; including peripherally inserted central catheters, non-tunneled, tunneled and totally implanted venous access catheters. MeSH terms were used to undertake a systematic search with data extracted by two independent researchers, using a standardized data extraction form. RESULTS:In total, 178 trials were included (78 non-tunneled [44%]; 40 peripherally inserted central catheters [22%]; 20 totally implanted [11%]; 12 tunneled [6%]; 6 non-specified [3%]; and 22 combined device trials [12%]). There were 119 trials (68%) involving adult participants only, with 18 (9%) pediatric and 20 (11%) neonatal trials. Insertion-related themes existed in 38% of trials (67 RCTs), 35 RCTs (20%) related to post-insertion patency, with fewer trials on infection prevention (15 RCTs, 8%), education (14RCTs, 8%), and dressing and securement (12 RCTs, 7%). There were 46 different study outcomes reported, with the most common being infection outcomes (161 outcomes; 37%), with divergent definitions used for catheter-related bloodstream and other infections. CONCLUSION:More high quality randomized trials across central venous access device management are necessary, especially in dressing and securement and patency. These can be encouraged by having more studies with multidisciplinary team involvement and consumer engagement. Additionally, there were extensive gaps within population sub-groups, particularly in tunneled devices, and in pediatrics and neonates. Finally, outcome definitions need to be unified for results to be meaningful and comparable across studies.

BACKGROUND:The KIDSCREEN-27 is a measure of child and adolescent quality of life (QoL), with excellent psychometric properties, available in child-report and parent-rating versions in 38 languages. This study provides child-reported and parent-rated norms for the KIDSCREEN-27 among Swedish 11-16 year-olds, as well as child-parent agreement. Sociodemographic correlates of self-reported wellbeing and parent-rated wellbeing were also measured. METHODS:A random population sample consisting of 600 children aged 11-16, 100 per age group and one of their parents (N = 1200), were approached for response to self-reported and parent-rated versions of the KIDSCREEN-27. Parents were also asked about their education, employment status and their own QoL based on the 26-item WHOQOL-Bref. Based on the final sampling pool of 1158 persons, a 34.8% response rate of 403 individuals was obtained, including 175 child-parent pairs, 27 child singleton responders and 26 parent singletons. Gender and age differences for parent ratings and child-reported data were analyzed using t-tests and the Mann-Whitney U-test. Post-hoc Dunn tests were conducted for pairwise comparisons when the p-value for specific subscales was 0.05 or lower. Child-parent agreement was tested item-by-item, using the Prevalence- and Bias-Adjusted Kappa (PABAK) coefficient for ordinal data (PABAK-OS); dimensional and total score agreement was evaluated based on dichotomous cut-offs for lower well-being, using the PABAK and total, continuous scores were evaluated using Bland-Altman plots. RESULTS:Compared to European norms, Swedish children in this sample scored lower on Physical wellbeing (48.8 SE/49.94 EU) but higher on the other KIDSCREEN-27 dimensions: Psychological wellbeing (53.4/49.77), Parent relations and autonomy (55.1/49.99), Social Support and peers (54.1/49.94) and School (55.8/50.01). Older children self-reported lower wellbeing than younger children. No significant self-reported gender differences occurred and parent ratings showed no gender or age differences. Item-by-item child-parent agreement was slight for 14 items (51.9%), fair for 12 items (44.4%), and less than chance for one item (3.7%), but agreement on all dimensions as well as the total score was substantial according to the PABAK-OS. Visual interpretation of the Bland-Altman plot suggested that when children's average wellbeing score was lower parents seemed to rate their children as having relatively higher total wellbeing, but as children's average wellbeing score increased, parents tended to rate their children as having relatively lower total wellbeing. Children living with both parents had higher wellbeing than those who lived with only one parent. CONCLUSIONS:Results agreed with European findings that adolescent wellbeing decreases with age but contrasted with some prior Swedish research identifying better wellbeing for boys on all dimensions but Social support and peers. The study suggests the importance of considering children's own reports and not only parental or other informant ratings. Future research should be conducted at regular intervals and encompass larger samples.

Trypanosoma cruzi is incapable of synthesizing putrescine or cadaverine de novo, and, therefore, salvage of polyamines from the host milieu is an obligatory nutritional function for the parasite. A high-affinity diamine transporter (TcPOT1) from T. cruzi has been identified previously that recognizes both putrescine and cadaverine as ligands. In order to assess the functional role of TcPOT1 in intact parasites, a Δtcpot1 null mutant was constructed by targeted gene replacement and characterized. The Δtcpot1 mutant lacked high-affinity putrescine-cadaverine transport capability but retained the capacity to transport diamines via a non-saturable, low-affinity mechanism. Transport of spermidine and arginine was not impacted by the Δtcpot1 lesion. The Δtcpot1 cell line exhibited a significant but not total defect in its ability to subsist in Vero cells, although initial infection rates were not affected by the lesion. These findings reveal that TcPOT1 is the sole high-affinity diamine permease in T. cruzi, that genetic obliteration of TcPOT1 impairs the ability of the parasite to maintain a robust infection in mammalian cells, and that a secondary low-affinity uptake mechanism for this key parasite nutrient is operative but insufficient for optimal infection.

Abdurins are a novel antibody-like scaffold derived from the engineering of a single isolated CH2 domain of human IgG. Previous studies established the prolonged serum half-life of Abdurins, the result of a retained FcRn binding motif. Here we present data on the construction of large, diverse, phage-display and cell-free DNA display libraries and the isolation of high affinity binders to the cancer target, membrane-bound ephrin receptor tyrosine kinase class A2 (EphA2). Antigen binding regions were created by designing combinatorial libraries into the structural loops and Abdurins were selected using phage display methods. Initial binders were reformatted into new maturation libraries and low nanomolar binders were isolated using cell-free DNA display, CIS display. Further characterization confirmed binding of the Abdurins to both human and murine EphA2 proteins and exclusively to cell lines that expressed EphA2, followed by rapid internalization. Two different EphA2 binders were labeled with 64Cu, using a bifunctional MeCOSar chelator, and administered to mice bearing tumors from transplanted human prostate cancer cells, followed by PET/CT imaging. The anti-EphA2 Abdurins localized in the tumors as early as 4 hours after injection and continued to accumulate up to 48 hours when the imaging was completed. These data demonstrate the ability to isolate high affinity binders from the engineered Abdurin scaffold, which retain a long serum half-life, and specifically target tumors in a xenograft model.

The contrast between regular and irregular inflectional morphology has been useful in investigating the functional and neural architecture of language. However, most studies have examined the regular/irregular distinction in non-agglutinative Indo-European languages (primarily English) with relatively simple morphology. Additionally, the majority of research has focused on verbal rather than nominal inflectional morphology. The present study attempts to address these gaps by introducing both plural and past tense production tasks in Hungarian, an agglutinative non-Indo-European language with complex morphology. Here we report results on these tasks from healthy Hungarian native-speaking adults, in whom we examine regular and irregular nominal and verbal inflection in a within-subjects design. Regular and irregular nouns and verbs were stem on frequency, word length, and phonological structure, and both accuracy and response times were acquired. The results revealed that the regular/irregular contrast yields similar patterns in Hungarian, for both nominal and verbal inflection, as in previous studies of non-agglutinative Indo-European languages: the production of irregular inflected forms was both less accurate and slower than of regular forms, both for plural and past-tense inflection. The results replicate and extend previous findings to an agglutinative language with complex morphology. Together with previous studies, the evidence suggests that the regular/irregular distinction yields a basic behavioral pattern that holds across language families and linguistic typologies. Finally, the study sets the stage for further research examining the neurocognitive substrates of regular and irregular morphology in an agglutinative non-Indo-European language.

In the deepest section of a large complex cave in the northern Negev desert, Israel, a bi-conical lead object was found logged onto a wooden shaft. Associated material remains and radiocarbon dating of the shaft place the object within the Late Chalcolithic period, at the late 5th millennium BCE. Based on chemical and lead isotope analysis, we show that this unique object was made of almost pure metallic lead, likely smelted from lead ores originating in the Taurus range in Anatolia. Either the finished object, or the raw material, was brought to the southern Levant, adding another major component to the already-rich Late Chalcolithic metallurgical corpus known to-date. The paper also discusses possible uses of the object, suggesting that it may have been used as a spindle whorl, at least towards its deposition.

Reducing health care costs requires the ability to identify patients most likely to incur high costs. Our objective was to evaluate the ability of the Charlson comorbidity score to predict the individuals who would incur high costs in the subsequent year and to contrast its predictive ability with other commonly used predictors.We contrasted the prior year Charlson comorbidity index, costs, Diagnostic Cost Group (DCG) and hospitalization as predictors of subsequent year costs from claims data of fund that provides comprehensive health benefits to a large union of health care workers. Total costs in the subsequent year was the principal outcome.Of the 181,764 predominantly Black and Latino beneficiaries, 70% were adults (mean age 45.7 years; 62% women). As the comorbidity index increased, total yearly costs increased significantly (P

Saliva is known to play a crucial role in insect feeding behavior and virus transmission. Currently, little is known about the salivary glands and saliva of thrips, despite the fact that Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (the western flower thrips) is a serious pest due to its destructive feeding, wide host range, and transmission of tospoviruses. As a first step towards characterizing thrips salivary gland functions, we sequenced the transcriptome of the primary salivary glands of F. occidentalis using short read sequencing (Illumina) technology. A de novo-assembled transcriptome revealed 31,392 high quality contigs with an average size of 605 bp. A total of 12,166 contigs had significant BLASTx or tBLASTx hits (E≤1.0E-6) to known proteins, whereas a high percentage (61.24%) of contigs had no apparent protein or nucleotide hits. Comparison of the F. occidentalis salivary gland transcriptome (sialotranscriptome) against a published F. occidentalis full body transcriptome assembled from Roche-454 reads revealed several contigs with putative annotations associated with salivary gland functions. KEGG pathway analysis of the sialotranscriptome revealed that the majority (18 out of the top 20 predicted KEGG pathways) of the salivary gland contig sequences match proteins involved in metabolism. We identified several genes likely to be involved in detoxification and inhibition of plant defense responses including aldehyde dehydrogenase, metalloprotease, glucose oxidase, glucose dehydrogenase, and regucalcin. We also identified several genes that may play a role in the extra-oral digestion of plant structural tissues including β-glucosidase and pectin lyase; and the extra-oral digestion of sugars, including α-amylase, maltase, sucrase, and α-glucosidase. This is the first analysis of a sialotranscriptome for any Thysanopteran species and it provides a foundational tool to further our understanding of how thrips interact with their plant hosts and the viruses they transmit.

This study investigates the storage vs. composition of inflected forms in typically-developing children. Children aged 8-12 were tested on the production of regular and irregular past-tense forms. Storage (vs. composition) was examined by probing for past-tense frequency effects and imageability effects--both of which are diagnostic tests for storage--while controlling for a number of confounding factors. We also examined sex as a factor. Irregular inflected forms, which must depend on stored representations, always showed evidence of storage (frequency and/or imageability effects), not only across all children, but also separately in both sexes. In contrast, for regular forms, which could be either stored or composed, only girls showed evidence of storage. This pattern is similar to that found in previously-acquired adult data from the same task, with the notable exception that development affects which factors influence the storage of regulars in females: imageability plays a larger role in girls, and frequency in women. Overall, the results suggest that irregular inflected forms are always stored (in children and adults, and in both sexes), whereas regulars can be either composed or stored, with their storage a function of various item- and subject-level factors.

Developmental dyslexia (DD) has previously been associated with a number of cognitive deficits. Little attention has been directed to cognitive functions that remain intact in the disorder, though the investigation and identification of such strengths might be useful for developing new, and improving current, therapeutical interventions. In this study, an old/new recognition memory paradigm was used to examine previously untested aspects of declarative memory in children with DD and typically developing control children. The DD group was not only not impaired at the task, but actually showed superior recognition memory, as compared to the control children. These findings complement previous reports of enhanced cognition in other domains (e.g., visuo-spatial processing) in DD. Possible underlying mechanisms for the observed DD advantage in declarative memory, and the possibility of compensation by this system for reading deficits in dyslexia, are discussed.

Astroviruses are becoming a growing concern in veterinary and public health. To date there are no registered vaccines against astrovirus-induced disease, mostly due to the difficulty to cultivate astroviruses to high titer for vaccine development using conventional techniques. As means to circumvent this drawback, we have developed stably transfected mink fetal cells and BHK21 cells constitutively expressing the full-length and truncated capsid proteins of two distinct genotypes of mink astrovirus. Protein expression in these stably transfected cells was demonstrated by strong signals as evaluated by in-situ PLA and IFA, and confirmed by Western blotting. The recombinant full-length and truncated proteins induced a high level of antibodies in mink, evaluated by ELISA, demonstrating their immunogenicity. In a challenge experiment in mink, a reduction in presentation clinical signs and virus shedding was observed in mink kits born from immunized females. The gene integration and protein expression were sustained through cell passage, showing that the used approach is robust and reliable for expression of functional capsid proteins for vaccine and diagnostic applications.

Maternal caregiving capacity, which is affected in part by cognition and mood, is crucial for the health of mothers and infants. Few interventions aim to improve maternal and infant health through improving such capacity. Multiple micronutrient (MMN) supplementation may improve maternal cognition and mood, since micronutrients are essential for brain function. We assessed mothers who participated in the Supplementation with Multiple Micronutrients Intervention Trial (SUMMIT), a double-blind cluster-randomized trial in Indonesia comparing MMN supplementation to iron and folic acid (IFA) during pregnancy and until three months postpartum. We adapted a set of well-studied tests of cognition, motor dexterity, and mood to the local context and administered them to a random sample of 640 SUMMIT participants after an average of 25 weeks (SD = 9) of supplementation. Analysis was by intention to treat. Controlling for maternal age, education, and socio-economic status, MMN resulted in a benefit of 0.12 SD on overall cognition, compared to IFA (95%CI 0.03-0.22, p = .010), and a benefit of 0.18 SD on reading efficiency (95%CI 0.02-0.35, p = .031). Both effects were found particularly in anemic (hemoglobin

Although deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the basal ganglia improves motor outcomes in Parkinson's disease (PD), its effects on cognition, including language, remain unclear. This study examined the impact of subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS on two fundamental capacities of language, grammatical and lexical functions. These functions were tested with the production of regular and irregular past-tenses, which contrast aspects of grammatical (regulars) and lexical (irregulars) processing while controlling for multiple potentially confounding factors. Aspects of the motor system were tested by contrasting the naming of manipulated (motor) and non-manipulated (non-motor) objects. Performance was compared between healthy controls and early-stage PD patients treated with either DBS/medications or medications alone. Patients were assessed on and off treatment, with controls following a parallel testing schedule. STN-DBS improved naming of manipulated (motor) but not non-manipulated (non-motor) objects, as compared to both controls and patients with just medications, who did not differ from each other across assessment sessions. In contrast, STN-DBS led to worse performance at regulars (grammar) but not irregulars (lexicon), as compared to the other two subject groups, who again did not differ. The results suggest that STN-DBS negatively impacts language in early PD, but may be specific in depressing aspects of grammatical and not lexical processing. The finding that STN-DBS affects both motor and grammar (but not lexical) functions strengthens the view that both depend on basal ganglia circuitry, although the mechanisms for its differential impact on the two (improved motor, impaired grammar) remain to be elucidated.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently issued new rules for using ceftiofur in food animals in part because of an increasing prevalence of enteric bacteria that are resistant to 3(rd)-generation cephalosporins. Parenteral ceftiofur treatment, however, has limited effects on enteric bacteria so we tested the hypothesis that excreted ceftiofur metabolites exert significant selection pressure for ceftiofur-resistant Escherichia coli in soil. Test matrices were prepared by mixing soil with bovine feces and adding urine containing ceftiofur metabolites (CFM) (0 ppm, ∼50 ppm and ∼100 ppm). Matrices were incubated at 23°C or 4°C for variable periods of time after which residual CFM was quantified using a bioassay. Bla(CMY-2) plasmid-bearing ceftiofur resistant (cef(R)) E. coli and one-month old calves were used to study the selection effects of CFM and transmission of cef(R) bacteria from the environment back to animals. Our studies showed that urinary CFM (∼13 ppm final concentration) is biologically degraded in soil within 2.7 days at 23°C, but persists up to 23.3 days at 4°C. Even short-term persistence in soil provides a >1 log(10) advantage to resistant E. coli populations, resulting in significantly prolonged persistence of these bacteria in the soil (∼two months). We further show that resistant strains readily colonize calves by contact with contaminated bedding and without antibiotic selection pressure. Ceftiofur metabolites in urine amplify resistant E. coli populations and, if applicable to field conditions, this effect is far more compelling than reported selection in vivo after parenteral administration of ceftiofur. Because ceftiofur degradation is temperature dependent, these compounds may accumulate during colder months and this could further enhance selection as seasonal temperatures increase. If cost-effective engineered solutions can be developed to limit ex vivo selection, this may limit proliferation for ceftiofur resistant enteric bacteria while preserving the ability to use this important antibiotic in food animal production.

Although learning a second language (L2) as an adult is notoriously difficult, research has shown that adults can indeed attain native language-like brain processing and high proficiency levels. However, it is important to then retain what has been attained, even in the absence of continued exposure to the L2--particularly since periods of minimal or no L2 exposure are common. This event-related potential (ERP) study of an artificial language tested performance and neural processing following a substantial period of no exposure. Adults learned to speak and comprehend the artificial language to high proficiency with either explicit, classroom-like, or implicit, immersion-like training, and then underwent several months of no exposure to the language. Surprisingly, proficiency did not decrease during this delay. Instead, it remained unchanged, and there was an increase in native-like neural processing of syntax, as evidenced by several ERP changes--including earlier, more reliable, and more left-lateralized anterior negativities, and more robust P600s, in response to word-order violations. Moreover, both the explicitly and implicitly trained groups showed increased native-like ERP patterns over the delay, indicating that such changes can hold independently of L2 training type. The results demonstrate that substantial periods with no L2 exposure are not necessarily detrimental. Rather, benefits may ensue from such periods of time even when there is no L2 exposure. Interestingly, both before and after the delay the implicitly trained group showed more native-like processing than the explicitly trained group, indicating that type of training also affects the attainment of native-like processing in the brain. Overall, the findings may be largely explained by a combination of forgetting and consolidation in declarative and procedural memory, on which L2 grammar learning appears to depend. The study has a range of implications, and suggests a research program with potentially important consequences for second language acquisition and related fields.

Squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) belongs to the serine protease inhibitor (Serpin) family of proteins. Elevated expression of SCCA has been used as a biomarker for aggressive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in cancers of the cervix, lung, head and neck, and liver. However, SCCA expression in breast cancer has not been investigated. Immunohistochemical analysis of SCCA expression was performed on tissue microarrays containing breast tumor tissues (n = 1,360) and normal breast epithelium (n = 124). SCCA expression was scored on a tiered scale (0-3) independently by two evaluators blind to the patient's clinical status. SCCA expression was observed in Grade I (0.3%), Grade II (2.5%), and Grade III (9.4%) breast cancers (p